Cain gives every impression of having run for president to showcase his enviable strengths as a communicator, before the gambit got serious when he vaulted to the top of the polls. As the inspiring outsider-businessman, Cain needn’t sound like he’s auditioning for the chairmanship of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. But is it too much to ask that he sound like he reads the newspaper every day? ...

Cain’s candidacy reflects the ever-lowering bar for running for president. Pat Buchanan was a media figure who ran for president; now some people run for president to become media figures. Cain is such a winsome personality that he gets away with shameless excesses of self-promotion. He refers to himself in the third person more than the notoriously self-referential Bob Dole ever did. The title of his campaign book is This Is Herman Cain! It’s impossible to imagine the great conservative insurgent of 1964 writing a book titled This Is Barry Goldwater!

Readers' Comments (6)

This is Herman Cain in a meeting with the Koch brothers --- "I didn't sign up for this. All I wanted was to sell a few books and raise my speaking fee. Get me some Secret Service protection so I don't get asked any more questions!"

He recites a Pokemon theme song at the end of a lecture; he quotes The Simpsons; he pretends to support a plan that is used in the Sims video game.

This is not presidential material. This is someone who spends a lot of time in hotel rooms, watching cartoons, playing video games, and fooling around.

It is an insult that someone like this is allowed to run for President. The only thing worse than Herman Cain is Sarah Palin.

The book was titled "Conscious of a Conservative." As someone who voted and campaigned for Goldwater, I knew in my heart he was right. So to were all those who told me that if I voted for Barry, we would have our boys fighting in a landwar in Asia, Vietnam. True to their word, I voted for Barry and sure enough, we sent millions of our boys to fight in a landwar in Asia learning nothing from Korea.

At least Korea was in response to overt aggression and was under the UN - we later learned nothing from Vietnam and went into Iraq under false pretenses and invaded and occupied another country that did nothing to us and tried to win the people over with arrogance, ignorance, condescention or even contempt for their history, culture and religion.

Goldwater told the truth about Vietnam and lost - later, McGovern told the truth about Vietnam and also lost.

This is Herman Cain in a meeting with the Koch brothers --- "I didn't sign up for this. All I wanted was to sell a few books and raise my speaking fee. Get me some Secret Service protection so I don't get asked any more questions!"

He recites a Pokemon theme song at the end of a lecture; he quotes The Simpsons; he pretends to support a plan that is used in the Sims video game.

This is not presidential material. This is someone who spends a lot of time in hotel rooms, watching cartoons, playing video games, and fooling around.

It is an insult that someone like this is allowed to run for President. The only thing worse than Herman Cain is Sarah Palin.